Michael sentenced to 3 years, 2 deferred and taken immediately into custody.

Today Michael Foster was sentenced to three years in prison, two deferred and taken directly into custody. Sam Jessup was sentenced to two years, both deferred with supervised probation.

Reacting to the sentence, Foster said, “It doesn’t matter if I’m sitting in jail. What matters is stopping the pollution. If other people don’t take action, mine makes no difference. And if they don’t, the planet comes apart at the seams.The only way what I did matters is if people are stopping the poison.”

At the hearing today, Assistant to the State's Attorney Jonathon Byers pressed the judge for significant penalties to deter future actions, asking the court to "send a message" by sentencing Michael and Sam to five years each, three and four years of those sentences suspended, respectively. The prosecution then bizarrely claimed that the action might have been justified if it would have really made a difference.

TransCanada also wrote a formal letter to the court demanding severe sentences.

Michael's lawyer stated that he initially approached this case in purely legal terms but has come to see the validity of the cause and truly fears for his grandchildren. Michael ended his statement to Judge Fontaine by saying, "My single life isn't worth more than all life to come."

Judge Fontaine acknowledged how unusual the case is and says she spent many hours thinking about the sentence, weighing most heavily the likelihood that Michael would act again. She acknowledged the seriousness of climate change and says that North Dakotan culture *is* about taking care of the land. She went on to say the criteria for the necessity defense was not met, claiming that the action was not effective in preventing harm and that legal alternatives exist to address climate change. The judge suggested a “marketing campaign” to better communicate the dangers of climate change.

This morning in an interview with local press, Michael said resolutely, “I made a decision to commit civil disobedience to defend my family tree and yours, knowing that there is no government, no politician, no corporation, on planet right now, putting forward a plan to defend life as we know it. My kids and yours won’t survive this mess if we don’t clean up all this.”

The morning of October 11, 2016, was chilly on the northern plains. Low sun glinted on prairie grasses and on the emergency turn-off valves of the five pipelines that burrowed from Canadian tar-sands oil fields into Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington. At 8:30 a.m., people wearing hard hats and yellow safety vests approached each of the pipelines. With bolt cutters, they let themselves into hurricane-fence enclosures. In several locations, one person videotaped the action while another cut the chains that immobilized the valves. These people, men and women, were not burly roustabouts; several were decades past middle age. It took all the strength they had to crank the heavy wheels on the valves. But when they had closed the valves on all five pipelines, the entire flow of crude oil from Canadian tar sands came to a stop.

The shutdown was an act of moral necessity, the Valve Turners explained. Global warming caused by burning fossil fuels is a desperate emergency, so shutting the emergency valves was exactly the right response—an act of sanity in a dangerously surreal world.

I shut down an oil pipeline – because climate change is a ticking bomb

Normal methods of political action and protest are simply not working. If we don’t reduce emissions boldly and fast, that’s genocide

A little over a year ago, four friends and Ishut downall five pipelines carrying tar sands crude oil into the United States by using emergency shut-off valves. As recent months have made clear, climate change is not only an imminent threat; it is an existing catastrophe. It’s going to get worse, and tar sands oil—the dirtiest oil on Earth—is one of the reasons.

We did this very, very carefully—after talking to pipeline engineers, and doing our own research. Before we touched a thing, we called the pipeline companies twice to warn them, and let them turn off the pipelines themselves if they thought that was better; all of them did so.

We knew we were at risk for years in prison. But the nation needs to wake upnowto what’s coming our way if we don’t reduce emissions boldly and fast; business as usual is now genocidal.

[Fort Benton, Montana – November 22, 2017] In a remarkably short trial in Montana’s Chouteau County District Court lasting just a day and a half, the jury found Leonard Higgins, a retired Oregon state worker turned climate activist who shut off a tar sands pipeline to fight climate change, guilty of felony criminal mischief and misdemeanor criminal trespass. The conviction carries a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in jail and fines of up to $50,000. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 2, 2018.

Higgins openly admits that on October 11, 2016, he cut two chains to enter a fenced enclosure around the Enbridge (formerly Spectra) tar sands pipeline in Coal Banks Landing, Montana, and turned the emergency shutoff valve. In fact, he and others called the company to alert them to obviate any safety problems, and a supporter filmed and livestreamed the action, after which they both waited to be arrested.

The case made national news. Higgins’ action was part of a coordinated effort that simultaneously shut off tar sands pipelines in four states, temporarily halting all flow into the US of tar sands, which is the most carbon-intensive and climate damaging form of oil. In addition to being prosecuted in state court, Higgins and his fellow “valve turners” were recently the target of a letter signed by 84 members of Congress to the Justice Department, asking pointedly why it hadn’t also prosecuted them under federal law, and whether their actions met the definition of domestic terrorism under the Patriot Act. Earlier this month Reuters reported the letter and the Justice Department’s response “could escalate tensions between climate activists and the [Trump] administration.”

Michael spoke at University Unitarian Church, Seattle, on November 26th, 2017

What would you do if you knew that all life to come depends on your action today? Because it does.

One year ago I stood here with the Plant-for-the-Planet kids, thanking you for sharing a generous Sunday plate collection. Those are the kids who are suing the government — the State of Washington and federal government — for a climate plan to preservetheir lives.

Three days before his trial begins in Fort Benton, Leonard Higgins presented his full climate necessity defense, with real expert witnesses, an acting judge, prosecutor and lawyers in front of a live audience at the University of Montana in Missoula on Saturday November 18th. Here is Leonard's testimony from the 'stand' that night. You can watch the full stream of the Mock Trial here.

On October 23rd, 84 Congressional Representatives sent a letter to the US Attorney General specifically mentioning the tar sands valve turner actions in 2016, and asking if the Department of Justice has pursued federal prosecution of the valve turners, and if no why not. Today the five valve turners responded with a letter addressed to Representative Buck and the 83 co-signers.